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The Astral Plane
The Astral Plane is the space between planes, also known as the realm of dreams. Most of it is an empty white void but sometimes pieces of statues, bits of ground, sections of stairway or other solid objects can be found. The denizens of this realm have crafted palaces for themselves with what little materials they can find. Time is slowed to a crawl here, similar to what people experience when dreaming. There is no gravity here but objects retain their mass and thus continue moving in any direction they are moved. Additionally, those who wander here must make frequent WILL saves versus their thoughts manifesting themselves. This may create entire illusory landscapes or creatures. They are not real though they possess the ability to cause harm if not disbelieved. It is easy to become lost in these dreamscapes and lose touch with reality. However, the natives of this plane are not fooled by such illusions. One can find gateways to every plane in the cosmos through the Astral Plane and there is even a gate to the Far Realms. The barrier between the Far Realms and the Ordered Multiverse is weakest here. The Castle in the Clouds: This castle on the border of the Day Court has a personal bifrost (Asgargian tech) that allows for quick travel around the Astral Plane at the speed of light. It once belonged to a powerful fey who married a mortal woman and had a son. But, when the boy was a baby an evil, man-eating cloud giant and his kindly but submissive wife took over the castle and killed the male fey while his wife and child fled to the Day Court and then the material plane. The evil giant used the bifrost to raid other realms and steal countless treasures. Then, one day, he captured a goose that laid golden eggs and became lazy as he could create his own treasures. The boy later returned with the help of a magic bean given to him by a fey friend of his father posing as a human. He befriended the giant's wife and hid from her evil husband until he went to sleep. Then, with each visit he made off with more of the treasure. One day he was discovered and the evil giant chased after him, but Jack beat him to the ground and cut the beanstalk, causing the giant to fall to his death. With the help of Day Court fey, Jack reclaimed his family's treasure for use on the material plane and made the giant's wife drink poison. The castle then sat abandoned for years until it was discovered by the party. After dispatching a vengeful undead skeleton which rose from the corpse of the giant's wide, the party made use of the bifrost to travel to the realm of the Githzerai. Denizens of the Astral Plane: Devourers - Devourers are powerful, soul-trapping undead native to this plane that target those mortals who venture here. The Gith - In ancient times, the Illithids appeared from a parallel doomed future on the primordial material plane. They created the Gith as the first sentient species to be their slaves and servitors and sought to rebuild their empire. However, the Gith revolted and destroyed most of the Illithids. They since divided themselves into two warring factions, the Githzeri who are lawful neutral, selfless and seek to preserve the balance of the cosmos, while the Githyanki are neutral evil and self-serving. Both will put aside their differences to hunt their mutual enemy in the Illithids whenever they appear. Githzeri - The Githzeri have a temple that high level monks may seek to visit whereby the Githzeri grand master, Master Penumbra, may help them to reach new levels of inner peace and teach them rare spiritual and martial techniques. Time passes extremely slow in this realm allowing one to undergo a lifetime of training in days if their minds and bodies can handle it. In order to access the temple, visitors must pass trials intended to test their strength, will and quality of character. Master Penumbra had been in contact with the Emperor of Hanashima on the Material Plane. Master Penumbra was recently betrayed and murdered by one of his best students, Master Sharuk, who turned evil and launched a coup within his ranks. The party was able to defeat Sharuk and Master Penumbra returned as a "light elf" aka good aligned Ghost to complete the party's training. The party then appointed Master Penumbra's former bodyguard, Nardak, who helped them defeat Sharuk, as the new master of the Githzerai. Githyanki -The Githyanki served a Lich Queen known as Vlaakith who created the devourers. Vlaakith instructed her servants to sever the silver chords tethering mortal travelers to their bodies while they travel the astral plane. She believed that mortals have no place here and would only interfere with her plans. She was slowly harvesting the essence of a dead god in an attempt to transform herself into a deity while at the same time devouring the souls of any of her own subjects that become powerful enough to potentially threaten her. In Githyanki culture, to "be chosen by the Queen" was believed to be a great honor and she created Shield Guardians whenever she devoured a servant, claiming she had transformed them into her immortal champions. Vlaakith's scheme was eventually exposed by Loki when he destroyed her and convinced the Githyanki to smash her phylactery. Loki is now the ruler of the Githyanki. Loki used the soul-stealing machine of Vlaakith to remove Sharuk's soul from his body and allow him to speak attack Master Penumbra. He had given Sharuk additional power and supported his coup to try to weaken the Githzerai so that the Githyanki stood a better chance at defeating him. He also wanted to stop the party from completing the Trials of the Zodiac. Sharuk was eventually defeated and the party raised an army to assault Loki in Vlaakith's castle. Loki raised the dead Githyanki that Vlaakith had stolen the souls of as slaughter wights to defend it. Once cornered in his throne room, however, Adam aka Balder was ultimately able to make peace with Loki. However, Sharuk's soul ended up possessing the mass of digested souls inside Vlaakith's harvester machine to become an extremely powerful demon. Over the course of the battle with the party and Loki it was revealed that the mass of souls also contained Vlaakith and others who eventually subsumed Sharuk's personalty and formed the conglomerate mind of the demon Legion. Legion was defeated by the party knocking him into a slow-time distortion around Vlaakith's castle which prevented people from just teleporting in. The soul harvester machine was destroyed. Loki disappeared during the battle. Vlaakith's castle was repurposed into a dungeon meant to contain the sealed demon lord and stop people from trying to free it. The Gith have now begun the slow process of trying to reunify. Dead Gods - The souls of dead gods do not normally travel to any particular afterlife. Their essence is instead scattered throughout the Astral Plane. In some cases it may be possible to commune with the spirits of these gods. Most remain lost for eternity, but some, such as Osiris, have arisen again from this realm. Others, such as Odur, have reincarnated from this realm. The Day and Night Court: . The Day Court - A realm known as Fantasia presided over by the Fae King Oberon (Lesser Deity of Magical Beasts) and his wife Titania (Intermediate Goddess of Fey). The world is that of a bright sky, flowering fields, bright forests with wind rustling through the leaves, little streams and multiple rainbows touching down from the sky which leprechauns ride. Unicorns dash through the glades where treants sing their ancient songs, satyrs chase after nymphs and pixies fill the air. It is a place of beauty and serenity. However, the pixies are notorious pranksters and offer visitors magical dewdrops that will place them in a state of euphoria and cause them to forget all those things that cause them pain. The Day Court fey often lead orphaned children to join them in their realm to live a better life. . The Night Court - The night court is a far more fearsome realm which borders on the realm of The Nightmare King. It is inhabited by hideous hags, murdering redcaps, bogeymen and other malicious fey who enjoy causing pain and suffering to those hapless mortals whom they come across. It is ruled over by The Baba Yaga. Children often fear the dark and she is the reason why. It is whispered that rifts to the night court can appear under beds, in closets, or anywhere else it is totally dark. Where as the Day Court are often protectors of children, she enjoys causing them pain and suffering. She flies around in a mortar and wields a pedestal with which she is said to grind the bones of children into powder to use in her potions. Her home, which stands on giant chicken legs, stomps through dark woods at night. The pleasant scent of candy or sweets emanates from the windows, inviting lost and hungry children inside. She often pretends to be a friendly old woman at first. But, with a touch, she can shrink her victims to diminutive size. They are then boiled in pots or they have their limbs slowly pulled off with her rotten, cracked teeth as she eats them alive. The Baba Yaga loves, above all else, to feed upon the flesh of the innocent. But, her minions are less choosy. She Baba Yaga feeds on pain and is said to have been the inventor of liquid pain, a common trade commodity in the lower planes. She is also thought to be very wise and skilled in the art of black magic: the greatest witch to have ever lived. 'The Dream Lords -' Most of The Dream Lords were at one point all mortals who acquired one of the seven silver keys and used them to travel to the Astral Plane. There, their souls became fused with the primordial essence of the plane which altered their original personalities and transformed them into avatars. The dreamlands granted them immortality and quasi-divine control over aspects of the dreamscape which they are tied to. They are unable to return to the mortal realm in physical form, but they can appear in dreams and feed upon different types of dreams in order to retain their power. They have, on occasion, bestowed the keys upon those who visit them. . The Nightmare King (Midnight Black). Midnight Black or Mister Midnight appears as a circus ringleader with a shifting form comprised of congealed phobias. His realm is an auditorium that leads into a circus of horrors. He lures lost souls to him to participate in twisted carnival games where competitors' souls are on the line. Those who face their fears and prevail are allowed to go free and have their greatest wish granted. Those who fail are trapped in his sinister circus to perform for all eternity. He is a practiced showman with a macabre sense of humor and a vaudeville flair. . Memory Lord - Mimir is the Dream Lord of Memory. Once a wise giant soldier-scholar, he was defeated in battle by Odin. Odin cut off his head, but kept it alive magically so he could ask Mimir questions and benefit from his knowledge. After Odin's death in Ragnarok, Mimir's head finally "died" but due to possessing a spark of animation directly from Odin his spirit remained in the astral plane. The other Dream Lords sought him out when they traveled to that realm with the silver chords. They used his knowledge to create the keys. In exchange, he was granted his own realm and was able to make himself whole again. Mimir possesses tremendous knowledge about the past and can help dreamers re-awaken memories they thought were lost but were just buried in their subconscious. It is even possible for his dreams to inspire memories from past lives. The Lich librarian Alexandria arranges meetings with him as often as possible. He is a master of riddles and any answers he gives are cryptic. Alexandria's sphinxes delight in dueling him in a battle of wits for a chance to learn more. . Madness Lord - The Dream Lord of Madness is Abdul Alhazred, the creator of the Necronomicon, a tome filled with knowledge of aberrations and how to summon them (Lords of Madness). He was inspired by the texts created by the Black Pharaoh whose followers ushered in the Demon of the Eclipse that ended the reign of the Pharonic Pantheon. He was the original leader of the Dream Lords and the creator of the Seven Silver Keys, promising the others power and convincing them to follow him. He fused himself with the astral plane to better understand how to weaken the planar barriers sealing away his eldritch masters. His goal in creating them was to create tears in the fabric of reality that will spread with time. One powerful enough to collect all of the keys, he believes, will be able to open the Gate of Dreams and go forth into the realm of his master Yog Sothoth - the overdeity of the primordial multiverse. Abdul Alhazred's realm is twisted by visions of the Far Realms and beings from that realm outside of space and time are able to partially manifest within it. . Inspiration Lord - Cornelius is the Dream Lord of inspiration. He hopes to inspire inventors and scientists. This lawful good entity's realm is that of a massive workshop filled with experimental automatons, flying machines, machines for just about everything. He has the best of intentions for each device he inspires people to dream up, but they aren't always used for good ends. It is said that he attempted to reach the Divine Forge but was unsuccessful in shaping the primordial clay due to lacking a divine spark and had to flee from "the unworked." He was deceived by Abdul Alhazred into going along with his plan to forge the dream keys, not thinking of the larger consequences and only the potential breakthrough. . Void Lord - The Dream Lord of Void appears as an old, pale skinned man with long nails, a long beard and long hair, wearing tattered grey robes, adrift through an endless expanse of nothingness. His realm is like a black hole, slowly eating away at the rest of the astral plane. But, it replenishes itself at a faster rate - for now. When you forget your dreams or have a dreamless sleep, it is his work. When you lose a memory or an old story or legend is totally forgotten by all who live, it is said to grow his realm. He is the oldest of the Dream Lords, arisen from the primordial forces of entropy in the cosmos rather than binding himself to a realm of dreams like the others. All he has ever known is all-consuming loneliness and despair. He despises all things and wishes for them to descend into oblivion with him. Some believe that, as the forces binding existence eventually weaken, he will consume all things - even the primordial multiverse known as the Far Realms. His nihilistic followers are known as Doomsayers and work to hasten the end. They believe that life is inherently suffering and pain and that only in non-existence can one find tranquility. They believe that, eventually, his power will exceed even the overdeity. Delight Lord - Hedone is the granddaughter of Aphrodite and the dream lord of delight. This neutral aligned being is directly descended from Eros, the celestial son of Aphrodite and a mortal woman named Psyche. The dreams that she inspires are those of soul soothing happiness, sexual pleasure and satisfaction otherwise unable to be found in the waking world. People wake from the dreams she inspires cursing that they ever had to leave. Hedone's realm is much the same. These elaborate, convincing illusions are better than real life after all. In joining the dream lords, she hoped to create a realm where there is no pain, no suffering, no hardship - only pure bliss. To give oneself over to Hedone is to abandon all else. . Prophecy Lord - Pytho is the dream lord of Prophecy. Once a famous oracle during the years of the Olympian Pantheon's reign, she has dedicated herself to interpreting dreams as a means of understanding the overdeity's divine plan. She sometimes grants people visions of their possible futures via omens in dreams. She also seeks to commune with the essences of "dead" deities in the process of reincarnating. She tries to help these deities re-discover who they were and whom they have the potential to be once more. She directly assisted Lukan, Loki's Reincarnation, knowing that his schemes would also lead to the rebirth of the other reincarnated deities in the party. ' Seven Silver Keys ' There are seven silver keys located throughout the multiverse created by the dream lords from the very fabric of the astral plane, resulting in the weakening of the overall fabric of the multiverse. Finding even one will allow the holder to Astral Project, regardless of their power, and potentially visit other realms. Finding more will allow them to visit the Astral Plane physically. However, the more they hold, the more they begin to receive visions from Cthulhu in R'lyeh. These visions seem to drive them to mad inspiration as they receive knowledge of things no mortal should know. Finding all seven will allow the user to pass through the "Gate of Dreams" which is actually the seven-sealed gate at the bottom of The Abyss holding the Far Realms outside of the ordered universe. Jack O'The Lantern possesses the key of Nightmares. The Reincarnation of Loki possesses the key of Prophecy.